Calwineries Blog

The 6th Annual Wine Tasting and Auction for Healthy Kids will be held on September 23, 2007 from 1-4 pm at Thomas Fogarty Winery & Vineyard. The entire $150 price of admission will be donated to California’s Healthy Kids program, which works to provide health insurance for needy children.

Once again, there’s controversy in the Napa Valley. This time, it’s locals versus the planned development of a winery. The Del Dotto Winery was the center of this controversy as area neighbors were upset that they made changes to the original development proposal.

The winery’s plans were first brought before the county in July 2003, and passed almost unanimously. But since then, the project has been red flagged because of numerous changes to the plan.

Governor Schwarzenegger recently announced the 2007 inductees to the California Hall of Fame. The most powerful and influential people in California’s history were nominated for this honor, including Robert Mondavi. This is a great moment for the wine industry and shows the importance of wine country to the state.

A study was recently released indicating that California wines are more likely to be featured on American restaurant wine lists. The study surveyed restaurants in major markets around the country in the $39 or less category.

Conducted by Winemetrics, the “On-Premise Wine Distribution Report” was intended to rank America’s top 100 wine brands based on the frequency of their appearance on wine lists. Winemetrics is a relative new research firm that provides consulting for on-premise sales.

On September 2, 2007 from 1-5pm, Buoncristiani Family Winery will hold a wine release party at the Napa Valley Opera House. This is a great opportunity to taste the entire portfolio of wines from one of Napa Valley’s top family wineries.

In an effort to bring more attention to the region, Lake County vintners have formed the Lake County Wineries Association. Even though Lake County Wine Country is located just north of the Napa Valley, it lacks the notoriety of its neighbors.

The newly formed association will surely be putting on events and tastings to promote the wines of their region. One of these events is the Lake County Wine Adventure, which is traditionally run by the Lake County Winegrape Commission. It will now be a joint venture between the two organizations.

The Napa Sustainable Winegrowing Group (NSWG) is preparing for their Fifth Annual Benefit and Auction. It will be held from on August 18th from 5-9 pm at Silverado Country Club in the town of Napa.

Many of Napa Valley’s sustainably produced wines will be available to sample from 5-7 pm. After the tasting, the silent auction will commence from 7-9 pm. This is a chance to bid on some of Napa’s rarest and best wines. In addition to the tasting and silent auction, Silverado’s Executive Chef Peter Pahk will prepare a dinner for the event using sustainable products.

Buena Vista is gearing up for its 150th anniversary of making wine in Carneros. To mark the occasion, the winery will host a small celebration on September 7th for media, trade and a handful of longtime customers.

Buena Vista was established in 1857 by Count Agoston Haraszthy. He was one of the first California vintners to experiment with European grapes and winemaking techniques. This has earned Buena Vista the title of, “California’s First Premium Winery.”

Many wineries have built their reputation upon the AVA system. Having names like Oakville, Rutherford and Stags Leap on the bottle can increase sales drastically. This is why there has been ongoingdebatesaboutAVAs in California. Unfortunately for wineries in Calistoga, they are having problems with their AVA application.

The United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has announced that it is reviewing the AVA petition process and all pending requests will be stalled. There are currently hundreds of regions that are in the process of applying for AVA status including the Calistoga wine region in Napa Valley.

The 1976 Blind Taste Test was arguably the most important tasting in the history of California Wine. Up to that point, California was looked at as an inferior region to most European countries. After the results were tallied, California emerged out of the shadows of the European giants and began its life as a player in the international wine game.

Over the years, many books have documented this “vinous shot heard round the world.” These books have paved the way for a movie about this epic event. But it may have taken the overwhelming success of Sideways to full convince the Hollywood community that there was room for a successful movie about wine.